Romney may be backtracking on his initial
concerns about London�s preparations ahead of the Olympic games at a
race walker�s pace, but perhaps he found the city�s security situation
�disconcerting,� as he told NBC�s Brian Williams, because he feared the
Brits were ignoring the threat of animal rights terrorists.

When
Romney ran the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002, it was just months
after the terror attacks on Sept. 11 and security was on everyone�s mind.
But Romney wasn�t too worried about Osama bin Laden or al-Qaida, he told the
Deseret News. No, the threat Romney feared most was from leftist-animal
lovers, as the paper reported in November of 2001:

After hijacked
jetliners smashed into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon on
Sept. 11, Utahns began openly wondering if the 2002 Winter Games might
become a target of Islamic terrorists.

But Salt Lake Organizing
Committee President Mitt Romney, in a meeting with the Deseret News shortly
after the attacks, downplayed any threat posed by Osama bin Laden,
explaining instead that the real threat of terrorism against the Winter
Olympics lay with home-grown terrorists acting under the flag of animal
rights. [...]

His source for that concern? Web sites that encourage
protesters to come to Salt Lake City and use the Games as a political forum.

Romney later �backtracked somewhat,� the paper reported, but pointed to
anarchist protests at the World Trade Organization conference in Seattle the
year before as an example of what could go wrong. To be fair, there had been
some incidents of civil disobedience from radical animal rights activists in
Utah, and police were monitoring some groups. One activist with Utah Animal
Rights Coalition was charged with four felonies for vandalizing a mink farm
and freeing the animals a year before, though a judge later dropped the
charges. But more dangerous than al-Qaida?

Animal activists told the
paper that Romney�s concern was �beyond paranoia.� The radical Animal
Liberation Front did
post the article in its entirety on its website, over an ominous
background of a man in a black ski mask cuddling a white bunny.

The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks extremist groups,
noted at the
time, �Groups announcing plans to protest in Salt Lake City include animal
rights activists, prison reformers, gay rights advocates, anti-abortion
activists, and many others.� But the ADL seemed to be more concerned about
the notoriously anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church than the animal lovers.

Mother Jones� Asawin Suebsaeng
noted in January that Romney�s obsession with animal terrorists was in
Sen. John McCain�s opposition research book against the former Massachusetts
governor during the 2008 Republican presidential primary, though McCain
never made an issue of it.

Kathleen Marquardt, founder of
Putting People First (an anti-animal rights group) writes in her 1993 book,
Animal Scam: the Beastly Abuse of Human Rights, that the American Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA):

"...now encourages
vegetarianism, the banning of fur, and the eventual end to all animal
research, not just �cruel' animal research." Marquardt writes that the
Humane Society now supports vegetarianism.

According to Marquardt,
"The typical animal rights activist is a white woman making about $30,000 a
year. She is most likely a schoolteacher, nurse, or government worker. She
usually has a college degree or even an advanced degree, is in her thirties
or forties, and lives in a city."

Marquardt cites studies indicating
that animal rights activists tend to identify with liberal causes such as
feminism and environmentalism.

"Every year," writes the Reverend
Andrew Linzey, an Anglican clergyman and author of Christianity and the
Rights of Animals, "I receive hundreds of anguished letters from Christians
who are so distressed by the insensitivity to animals shown by mainstream
churches that they have left them or are on the verge of doing so."

It is not surprising, therefore, that Marquardt reports that "Most activists
share a bias against Western civilization and its Judeo-Christian
foundations."

According to Marquardt, the "political clout" of the
animal rights movement "is surprisingly bipartisan. But most of the leading
politicians working with the animal rights movement are liberal Democrats."

Marquardt mentions Senator Barbara Boxer of California, Nevada
Congressman Jim Bilbray, Charlie Rose of North Carolina, Tom Lantos and
Gerry Studds.Marquardt admits, however, that "some Republicans are
animal rightists, too. Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas often
supports animal rights cause � except, of course, those pertaining to
cattle, a major business in Kansas. Senator Robert Smith of New Hampshire
was a founder of the Congressional Friends of Animals.

"Bob Dornan of California, one of the most conservative House members, is
an animal rights advocate � he cosponsored legislation banning the use of
animals in testing cosmetics and received a PETA award.

"And
Manhattan Congressman Bill Green promoted legislation that would have shut
down over ninety million acres of federal land to hunting, fishing, and
trapping."

Marquardt continues:

"Although he's not an elected
official, a conservative political figure who, surprisingly, is on the other
side is G. Gordon Liddy, author Will and a key figure in the 1972 Watergate
uproar.

"When I went on Liddy's radio show, he and PETA's Ingrid
Newkirk greeted each other with hugs and kisses and lots of warm words.

"With allies in both political parties and across the ideological
spectrum," concludes Marquardt, "the animal rights movement has been able to
score some great successes, regardless of which party controls the White
House or Capitol Hill."

****

Animal issues are now mainstream
politics. Obama for America reported in September 2008:

"To combat
this serious problem, he has proposed an aggressive plan to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050.

"As an Illinois State
Senator and United States Senator, Obama has been a champion of
animal-friendly legislation and policy.

"He has repeatedly voted to
increase penalties for animal cruelty and violence, and to require
psychological counseling for those who engage in this behavior. "He has
co-sponsored bills to ban the slaughter of horses and wild burros, increase
penalties for animal fighting, prohibit dog fighting, and penalize
spectators for engaging in dog fighting.

"He has supported
additional funding for the Animal Care division within the Department of
Agriculture, and sought funds to enforce the Animal Welfare Act, Humane
Methods of Slaughter Act, and the federal animal fighting law."

Animal issues are now mainstream politics.

A pamphlet put out by
Compassion Over Killing says raising animals for food is one of the leading
causes of both pollution and resource depletion today. According to a
2006 United Nations report, Livestock's Long Shadow, raising chickens,
turkeys, pigs, and other animals for food causes more greenhouse gas
emissions than all the cars, trucks and other forms of transportation
combined.

Researchers from the University of Chicago similarly
concluded that a vegetarian diet is the most energy efficient, and the
average American does more to reduce global warming emissions by not eating
animal products than by switching to a hybrid car.

"Livestock are one
of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental
problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation."--Union
Nations' Food and Agriculture Association

Nearly 75% of the grain
grown and 50% of the water consumed in the U.S. are used by the meat
industry. (Audubon Society)

On average 990 liters of water are
required to produce one liter of milk. (United Nations)

Over 260
million acres of U.S. forest have been cleared to grow grain for livestock.
(Greenpeace)

It takes nearly one gallon of fossil fuel and 5,200
gallons of water to produce just one pound of conventionally fed beef.
(Mother Jones)

Farmed animals produce an estimated 1.4 billion tons
of fecal waste each year in the U.S. Much of this untreated waste pollutes
the land and water.

The number of animals killed for food in the
United States is nearly 75 times larger than the number of animals killed in
laboratories, 30 times larger than the number killed by hunters and
trappers, and 500 times larger than the number of animals killed in animal
pounds.